Discover the the wine regions of South Australia with James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia

Victoria may have more wineries and regions, New South Wales more zones, and Western Australia may have the largest single zone, but South Australia still rightly calls itself the wine State. It has 44 per cent of the nation’s vineyards, is responsible for 47 per cent of the annual crush and makes 48 per cent of the annual wine output (it is a nett buyer of grapes and bulk wine from the other States). It was not always thus: in 1889, at the height of Victoria’s production (before the onset of phylloxera), South Australia produced 2.29 million litres compared with Victoria’s 7.1 million litres. Federation (which removed State duties) and the progressive opening of the Riverland areas along the Murray River led to an all-time high share of 80 per cent by South Australia in 1946. By the 1980s South Australia’s contribution to the national make varied between 58 per cent and 65 per cent, according to the vagaries of vintage.